UNSTOPPABLE NARRATIVES: Like Kevin Drum, we hope that Gore will win the Nobel peace prize tomorrow—and we hope it for somewhat similar reasons. For the record, its more than possible that Gore wont win. A very large number of people have been formally nominated. (According to the news report cited below, Gore has been jointly nominated with Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit who has campaigned about the effect of climate change on Arctic peoples.)

But lets take note of the power of narrative. On Sunday, the Times of London published this short report, saying that Gore is being tipped as a favourite [sic!] to win. Clearly, Sarah Baxters piece is friendly to Gore. And thats why we were so struck by certain parts of her imagery.

First, we were struck by her second paragraph, presented here in full:

BAXTER (10/7/07): Gore, a former American vice-president and failed presidential candidate, has reinvented himself as the Goracle with a rock star following after presenting last years Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, about the dangers of climate change.

The power of press corps narrative is truly something to see. The notion that Gore was constantly reinventing himself was one of the punishing claims the press corps asserted, in every conceivable circumstance (and some that were not), during his twenty-month run for the White House. Baxter, of course, is being friendly to Gore. But this press corps narrative, devised to harm Gore, still trails Gore around in her head; indeed, it seems to have been power-blasted into every English-speaking journalists brain. We had a somewhat similar thought when we read Baxters paragraph 6:

BAXTER: Gore spent last year assessing whether he ought to run for the White House in 2008, teasing his supporters by saying, I havent completely ruled it out, and prompting observers to keep a close eye on his girth for signs that he was slimming for a presidential bid.

Tragic. Even as the director of Oslos International Peace Research Institute tells Baxter that Gore and Watt-Cloutier are likely winners this year, she cant resist the power of gravity. In her very next paragraph, she recycles the astounding immaturity of the modern, upper-class press corps. As if propelled by a force from the grave, she interjects a comment about Gores girth. By now, its just Hard Pundit Law.

In An Inconvenient Truth, and in later interviews, Gore often said how hard hes had to work to convey the facts about global warming. I feel like I havent been very successful at telling this story, he has often said. Indeed, its exceptionally hard to convey information—but its astoundingly easy to convey brainless narratives. Even as she praises Gore, Baxter cant resist the pull of her cohorts sheer inanity. The word reinventing is stuck in her head in the compartment reserved for Gore. So is the concept of girth.

What complete, f*cking fools we mortals be! And heres what the right-wing machine has long known: Its very easy to put silly narratives inside our soft and brainless heads. Its very easy to hand us scripts—scripts that just never leave us.